Moniker
by Millennialice
Summary: It turns out finding someone and getting them back are two completely different problems.   Spoilers for The Lost Hero.
1. Leo's Lost

AN: This story is a bit of a take on part of the next book in the Heroes of Olympus series. It was meant to be a one-shot, but kind of got away from me, so it's looking like several chapters instead.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. This is just for fun.

* * *

Leo hated deadlines.

He hated rush jobs too, and building a flying boat in six months, when it would have been difficult to build it the _right way_ in a year was the ultimate in rush jobs. Every day for the past six months he had done nothing but eat, breathe and sleep construction on a deadline.

_Nothing worth doing deserves rushing, mijo. It must be done in its own time._

He guiltily brushed his mother's words aside and tried to work harder and faster. The ultimate rush job was their only option because they were up against the ultimate deadline. Special emphasis on dead. Their lives and the lives of everyone else in Western civilization depended on this boat being fully operational in a few days. Of course, it also depended on the good will of the gods, and the ability of seven still unknown demigods - of which he was included - being able to defeat an army of ancient giants in some way they had yet to determine.

Leo's stomach lurched at the thought as he glanced around at the still unfinished ship.

He _really_ hated deadlines.

* * *

It was impressive how Cabin Nine had pulled together and thrown themselves into this project. The idea of leaving their terrible curse behind had appealed to all of his siblings, and they attacked it with one single enthusiastic mind. The kids who usually left for their own homes during the rest of the year stayed behind, and a couple of others who hadn't been there for the winter break showed up. They had gathered up their supplies from their cabin and their forge and pretty much made Bunker Nine their home.

Day and night, you could hear tools clanging and the fires roaring as the children of Hephaestus only took breaks to eat or sleep, and then usually at the insistence of Chiron or someone else. Leo could count on one hand the number of times two of his siblings had been out of the bunker at the same time. For them it had been like heaven. They had a near impossible project to build, no real rules about how to do it, and nothing to distract them from it. Stressful, frustrating heaven, sure, but heaven still the same.

They had just managed to get it done. The _Argo II _worked, but that was about it. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't yet fully functional, but it could fly, and so they had started on their journey to find the Roman camp. The thought was they could finish it on the way there and later, on the way to Greece, so that it would be complete when they made their offer to the gods. The hope was that the children of Vulcan would be able to help with the finishing touches as well.

* * *

Underneath the grease and oil that covered his face, Leo snorted. That had been the hope, anyway. It wasn't quite the way things worked out.

The wires he was working with were frayed and kept tangling, even as he tried his best to keep them in order. The trip to the Roman camp hadn't been easy, and parts of the ship had taken damage. This part of the _Argo II _had borne the brunt of a run in with some particularly mischievous sylphs who had stalled them over St. Paul. The wiring system had fallen apart as a result, and he needed to repair it so that he could finish installing the rest of the weapons systems that protected this part of the bow. But it wasn't working because the wires were frayed and they twisted like snakes in his hand and he had been working on this for fourteen hours now and it _still_ wasn't done, and they had three more days' worth of work before they could even consider the ship in the same condition it left camp in, which wasn't good enough because they still had to finish certain modifications before they could start for Greece, and-

The wires tangled again. He conjured a fireball in his palm and hurled it into a nearby piece of scrap metal. It hit with a satisfying clang that echoed throughout the old building and faded, leaving a dent and a scorch mark in its place. Feeling a bit better, he left the wires for a moment and stretched his arms over his head.

Raccoon eyes under blonde curls watched him for a moment over the screen of a laptop then flicked back down to focus on whatever had held their attention before. The sound of absent-minded typing filled the silence. Leo settled back in to finish his repair job and allowed himself a wry smile. As annoying as he tried to be, that was the biggest reaction he had gotten out of Annabeth all day.

* * *

He had thought that knowing where her boyfriend was would maybe chill Annabeth out, but he had been completely wrong. If anything, it had had the opposite effect. Leo still got uneasy remembering how she had dealt with a snake woman she called an _empousa _who had gotten in the way of a delivery of supplies for the _Argo II_, and he hadn't been completely comfortable being alone with her without something hammerlike within easy reach since. Finding and reaching the Roman camp became her one objective, and she had very little patience for anyone who slowed them down, which wasn't good news for him: the chief builder and designer of the ship that would get them there.

She had shown up a few days into their building, and by then he probably should have expected how she insinuated herself into their process. She threw herself into their work with a manic determination. She inspected all the blueprints for design flaws, and she double checked all their numbers and calculations. She helped brainstorm ways to include their new features, and she added a few herself.

This was supposed to be a children-of-Hephaestus-project, but Leo went ahead and let her join in because Athena was the goddess of invention, and he was pretty sure no one had ever built anything like the _Argo II_ before. Besides, she proved full of invaluable information as she had been on more quests than anyone and so could think of problems they might face so far-fetched that no one else had even _considered _them. And, alright, he vividly remembered what had happened to the last (snake) person who crossed her, and it scared him a bit to think that he could be next.

He only put his foot down when she had started to help build. Athena kids were better at the intellectual side of mechanics, anyone knew that, so when she started running wires and tightening screws all over his ship, Leo was more than a little concerned. They couldn't afford any setbacks and time was tight enough.

"You said this morning that you needed someone to finish this side of the ship, and everyone else is busy with something else" Annabeth said when he brought the subject up. She looked down at him from the harness she was swinging from. "I can handle a power tool, Leo."

Leo decided to tread carefully. "I didn't say that," he said. Instead, he implied it. "But we're under a lot of pressure, and everything, even the little stuff, needs to work, so why don't…"

Annabeth shifted the power tool in her hand. He was pretty sure she didn't _mean _to aim it at him. "You know," she stated off-handedly, "I was the one who reactivated Festus when we found his body."

He winced, and not just because she had dredged up the topic of his former dragon. "That…doesn't exactly prove your point. His neurocircuits were a mess and, man, I still don't know everything you did to that control disc but you _really_ shouldn't have done it. And-"

She interrupted. "I should say," she said flatly, "I reactivated Festus, in the middle of a battle, with us about to be attacked, and with someone's life on the line." She frowned at the memory. "Beckendorf's life, actually. I successfully restarted the dragon – reattached its head - and made sure it attacked the enemy and not us so that we could save him." Her voice got a little softer, and the frown on her face faded slightly. "Because if anyone was going to reattach his head, it would be me."

Then she swung around and went back to riveting the side of the ship, with maybe a bit more force than necessary. Leo watched her for a moment, then turned and walked away and let her continue. He could see she knew what she was doing there, and if Annabeth could get that done, it would be one less thing for him to worry about later. And, he thought, if she could restart his dragon the first time around, he could certainly trust her to help make Festus' newest incarnation come to life as well.

So Annabeth worked with them, inevitably being called away for camp business by her brother Malcolm, who Leo figured was her Athena deputy, but usually returning within a day or so. Others popped in from time to time to contribute as well - the Hecate cabin to calibrate the magical systems, a few from the Apollo cabin to improve navigation, among others - but none actually moved in the way Annabeth had. And it was because of her as much as anyone that they had gotten as much done as they did.

* * *

Finally-_finally_- the repair job was finished. Leo wiped his forehead, smearing around the grease there. He moved away from the ship and started searching for where he had left his wrench. The walls creaked and moaned around him as they were hit by a hard gust of wind. The building they were in was old. It was the only one the Romans claimed they could spare. It seemed sturdy enough, or there was no way Leo was keeping his ship there, but it was definitely a fixer-upper and was prone to leaking when it rained.

And did it rain here. And snowed. And hailed and sleeted and blew and stormed. But not every day, no, some days the sun just beat down on them and baked them like they were in a desert. The Roman camp appeared to have control over the weather at their location just like Camp Half-Blood did, the difference was that they used it to create nasty weather instead of deflect it. Anything to make their kids just that much tougher.

He found his wrench, climbed up the front of the ship, and set to work adding the new Greek fire cannon to the stern. Behind where he was anchoring the cannon, there was a pit meant to contain a whole set of horrible things for them to drop on enemies. For now it was empty, just one more thing on his to-do list. There was also a similar set up in the back of the boat that was to be rigged up with a giant net, something crucial to Annabeth's plan to protect the Parthenon, but they couldn't do anymore with that until she provided some more numbers on air resistance and perimeter length so they could set it up the right way.

Leo paused and listened in her general direction. Judging from the sound of her typing, that wouldn't be happening today. He bit back a groan and went back to work.

* * *

Finding the Roman camp hadn't been extremely hard with Jason's newly remembered directions to guide them, and they had soon found themselves fording through the camp's defenses and landing –literally – on their front doorstep. The other camp hadn't shown surprise at an army of Greek demigods suddenly appearing fully trained and equipped for war. In fact, the Romans had guessed they would come, expected them, even. A few snidely implied that they were late.

It turned out that the presence of Greek demigods had been revealed to them shortly after Percy Jackson arrived in their camp. However, they didn't immediately try to make contact with them, or build an ark to seek out an alliance, or really change much of their schedule beyond setting up a look out or two. It only made sense, they explained to the tired and stressed and bedraggled crew of the _Argo II_, for the Greeks to come to them.

* * *

Thinking of the Romans left a bad taste in his mouth. He gathered up some saliva, turned and spat over his arm, and watched it fall a long way to the ground. From his high position, Leo could look out over the entire impromptu workshop. Various stations sat abandoned at the moment with their half completed projects strewn around. Today it was just him and Annabeth. Everyone else must have been at another summit. Again.

* * *

It wasn't that the Romans hadn't busy the past six months. A short tour/showoff of the camp proved that. One look inside the workshop of the children of Vulcan (their very nice, not at all ramshackle, workshop) showed Leo several new war machines that his cabin hadn't thought of and, he had to admit, would come in handy. From what he had gotten to know of the members of Cabin Nine, the Vulcan kids weren't much different. They had a few conversations about equipment, building, gears and tools – basic small talk stuff - and it had gone pretty well. Definitely better than he had been expecting. Just as he was thinking that this hadn't gone so bad and they would be able to easily work together after all, they had the first of many summit meetings.

There was a round stone area situated near the center of their camp between training arenas and lit all around by torches. A half circle of stone seats wrapped around one side, and from the outside, the design reminded Leo of the Coliseum. It looked like the entirety of the Roman camp was sitting in those rows under banners for each god. On the other side, an odd assortment of chairs was set out of the ground, huddled around half of a large, round stone table. Latin words were etched into the table accompanied by a few Greek symbols.

The Romans had apparently been preparing many things for their arrival. One was presented at that first meeting.

"This," explained a son of Ceres, walking forward and setting a long piece of paper down on the table, "is what we will require as compensation for coming to your aid."

Every Greek mouth opened, and more than a few bronze weapons had been reached for when Jason and Piper smoothly intervened.

"I believe _cooperation_ is a better term for what we are looking for," Piper quickly said. She tilted her head and gave the boy a small smile. "After all, our parents won't join us in this fight unless they join every one of us."

"I don't need to remind you, Anthony," Jason said quietly, "that this is not just for one camp's benefit. We are trying to save the gods and the world." He looked up at the other boy from where he was sitting. "Put it away."

The boy looked as if he was going to argue. He and Jason held a quick staring contest, before he snatched the paper back off of the table. "Be that as it may," he said smoothly, rolling it up, "there is one issue we refuse to leave unresolved a moment further." He looked over all of the campers before settling on Chiron. "The Golden Fleece," he told the centaur. "We know you have it and we demand you relinquish it."

Half of the room stiffened, and everyone was silent. Then everyone spoke at once.

"Try and take it," Clarisse snarled at the other side of the table. She stretched out her arms and cracked her knuckles.

"They might find a few…unpleasant surprises if they do," Connor Stoll said, smirking at her.

His brother, Travis, added. "Do you have proof we have the Fleece? Otherwise, we think you all are hiding the Batmobile here somewhere and we demand you relinquish that first."

"Guys," Piper pleaded, "we're all on the same side here." No one listened to her, the noise level just increased and droned her out.

"What's the matter?" Clarisse taunted. "Having trouble with your own defenses? I bet they could use a little boost."

"They were certainly easy enough to get through," Nico DiAngelo added giving the Romans a cold smile. "With the Fleece, I doubt Half-Blood Hill would be so accommodating."

"Not that we're saying we have it." The Stoll twins added. Leo saw Piper open her mouth, but if she said anything, he didn't hear it. She looked to Jason for help, but his eyes were darting between both camps, like he didn't know whose side to take.

"I'll say it," Annabeth spoke up. Everyone fell silent, and she cut off Nico's protest with a sharp gesture. "No, Piper's right, we're supposed to be on the same side, and we shouldn't be keeping secrets." She glanced at Chiron, then back at Anthony. Leo wondered why Chiron hadn't spoken up yet, but he figured it was because he wanted the demigods to work things out for themselves. He wondered what the guy would do when someone started shooting arrows off instead of just their mouths.

"It's true, we have the Fleece," Annabeth continued. "The Titans sabotaged our borders and we needed it to bolster our defenses. We quested for it, we fought for it, we earned it, and we kept it." She continued, taking a deep breath, "And it may be possible for us to do without it for a while _after_ the giants are defeated." She leaned forward and set her elbows on the table. "Now, what _I _would like to know," she said, her intense grey eyes on Anthony, "is how you knew that the Fleece was at our camp in the first place."

Anthony regarded her for a hard moment, and then said, "Amber."

A girl about Anthony's age, eighteen or so, stood up under the Ceres banner and approached the table. On it, she set a necklace strung with four painted wooden beads. "I believe," Anthony said over the sudden murmurs on their side of the pavilion and pointing at the image on the second bead, "that that is supposed to be the Golden Fleece."

Leo had seen necklaces like that before, on nearly every person who had boarded his ship. It was a camp necklace, where each bead represented a year at Camp Half-Blood. Having only known he was a demigod for six months, Leo didn't have one yet, and neither did Piper. Everyone on the Greek side was talking again, but he didn't have to listen to know what they were saying. There was only one person who the Roman camp could have gotten a Greek half-blood necklace from.

* * *

AN: So, that was chapter one. EDIT: I've gone back and done some light editing, so the typos should be pretty much gone. Please let me know if any are still there.

This story pretty much wrote itself backwards: literally, I started with how it ends and worked out what had happened before that, and before that and so on, which was new for me. If anything doesn't work, or is confusing, let me know, and I'll try to make it more clear.


	2. Annabeth's Problem

AN: Sorry for the false update yesterday. I thought I could edit the first chapter without resubmitting the story, but I guess I was wrong. Whoops. It shouldn't happen again.

Thanks to everyone who has favorited this story, and everyone who signed up for the alerts. And also, thank you to reviewers Shorty and KG Inc, VampireNits, McIrishGirl, Unknown, Anonyma, BookLover223 and ChocolateCurls. Thank you for your time and comments!

And BookLover223- As I understand it, Percy's necklace would only have four beads: the trident, the Fleece, the labryinth, and the Empire State Building. Titan's Curse happened over the winter, so there isn't a bead for that book. Hope that helps!

* * *

Annabeth reached out and picked up the necklace. "Where is he?" she asked in a measured tone.

To his credit, Anthony didn't pretend not to know who she meant. "He is not here."

Annabeth's eyes went wide and her lips became very thin. Everyone around her started yelling at the other side, but she stayed very quiet and very pale. Next to her, the son of Hades had more color as he demanded, "Then where is he now?"

"What have you done with him?" Katie Gardener accused.

"We kept yours in one piece," Clarisse said, jerking her head at Jason. "We expect ours to be the same way, or there will be blood to pay."

The Roman campers had finally had enough. They broke their strict silence and returned every nasty comment flung their way. As one, they leapt to their feet and moved forward together in one movement. The whole meeting was devolving into a shouting match and Leo thought he heart the rasp of a weapon or two being removed from their sheaths, when Jason stood on the table and yelled, "Guys, that's ENOUGH!"

He reached down and pulled Piper up with him. "STOP," she commanded. "Listen. We won't find out anything unless we listen to them." She must have really been laying on the charmspeak because Leo found himself wanting nothing more than to sit back down and listen to everything everyone had to say for the rest of the night. Possibly for the week, or even the month, too.

* * *

It had been days since he had talked with Piper or Jason. They were getting a workout trying to make sure everyone didn't kill each other. Mediating was a twenty four/seven job that didn't end when the latest meeting failed. Chiron had tasked them with outreach: they traveled around the camp trying to talk to Greeks and Romans alike, and communicate where the other side was coming from. Leo thought Chiron was kind of holding them up as an example, like: _Look, your two sides can get along! See how happy Jason and Piper are together?_

He finished tightening a bolt. It was embarrassing enough for him to have his friends treated like that, so he couldn't imagine what it was like for them. They walked around and talked with everyone else and not much with each other, which Leo figured is all they really wanted to do, anyway.

In contrast to the two of them talking their heads off, Leo had barely said ten words all day. Since Piper and Jason were out, there wasn't much chance for him to have a real conversation. Besides them, there were his siblings who, like him, were entrenched in finishing the ship. He swallowed hard. That pretty much just left Annabeth.

He would like to talk to Annabeth, as edgy as she could make him, because apparently she was the only demigod in North America who had actually been to Greece. There was all sorts of information about their destination he could really use. How big were the beaches? How deep was the water? What kinds of sands were there? Could they damage the motors of the ship? Average wind speed and temperature? Any freak storms usually happen this time of year? All very useful things, since he was in charge of creating their ride there. Unfortunately, he had built things that acted more human than Annabeth had lately.

* * *

No one else spoke after Piper and Jason's demonstration, and eventually, with only a few rude gestures across the room, everyone found a seat again. Anthony looked at Piper suspiciously, then spoke again. "We had no way of knowing when you would arrive. Or," he said looking at them like they were slugs he had discovered in his garden, "_if _you would ever arrive. _Our _preparations continued as normal, and there is currently a few of our members who are out tying up… a few loose ends," he finished dismissively. "Percy Jackson is among them. We will let you know," he cut off Rachel as she started to speak, "when he returns."

Rachel sat forward and opened her mouth to speak again. She was stopped by the sound of a distant horn. "Never mind, now," she sighed, crossing her arms and legs and setting back into her chair. The Romans turned and the Greeks followed them to watch as four figures crossed an open area headed for where they had gathered. A fifth trailed behind, still checking behind them to make sure it was safe.

"They're some of ours," confirmed a son of Mars.

"Latecomers?" came a girl's voice from the top row, "well, they will be punished."

Rachel raised a hand, then lowered it as Amber peered at the group and said, "I think your punishments can wait, Tammy. They're not late, they're early." Rachel grinned at her and tapped her nose once. As they joined the meeting, Leo could see that the new kids consisted of one boy and three girls. They all carried packs and, from his experience, looked like they had just gotten back from a grueling quest of some sort.

They dropped their packs at the edge of the stone circle and made an attempt to straighten up before walking in. One of the girls, who looked about sixteen or seventeen, stepped up and turned toward the crowd, "We accomplished it," she said. The Romans didn't make a sound. No cheering, no sighs of relief, nothing.

Amber walked forward, "That is good news," she said. She stopped a few feet away and held her hands out to the other girl. "You have our thanks." She sounded like she meant it too. Whoever this new girl was, Leo thought, she sure had the Romans' respect.

She was very pretty and, unlike the others with her, wasn't covered in dirt or wearing stained and ripped clothes and battle armor. You would have thought she just got back from the spa, not from a quest. Her eyes were warm and sparkled as she smiled, and her caramel colored hair was woven into a single braid that was pulled over her shoulder, and as she looked over and took in everyone from Camp Half-Blood, Leo got that heart-racing feeling that happened right before he fell for a girl, hard. A couple of chairs down, he heard Annabeth breathe in sharply.

The last member of the new group had stopped checking for monsters and finally arrived at the meeting. He had short dark hair and looked about Leo's age, or maybe a year older, and was wearing armor of a deep, rich, green. Like the others, his clothes looked like they had seen better days, but he and the girl were the only ones completely uninjured, and he walked confidently into the meeting like a conquering hero. Every surrounding eye –Greek and Roman - watched his every little move, as he walked up to stand close to the girl with the braid, and Leo could only guess that this, at last, was Percy Jackson.

Annabeth moved to her feet, the necklace still clutched tightly in her fist. Everyone on their side of the table worked hard to make it look like they weren't gawking while not taking their eyes off her. Her gaze finally left Percy's face to move to the girl next to him, and then fell on everyone of the others watching them. They waited for her to say something. She flicked her eyes back at the new group, licked her lips and took a deep breath. "Leo," she said.

It took Leo a second to realize that she was speaking to him. "Huh?" he asked as he turned his gaze from the firelight gleaming off the brown-haired girl's braid. Annabeth had already made her way over to him and had him on his feet.

"There's still some work to do on the _Argo_," she said, grabbing his arm, "and there isn't a lot of time to do it." She started directing him through the crowd away from the meeting. More than one person cried out as he stepped on their feet. "That's where you should be right now."

"Hold on a second," he said glancing over his shoulder. The girl with the braid was watching them curiously. _Everyone _was watching them. Was this because he had been staring at her? He didn't think Annabeth had noticed, and why would she care? It's not like he was going to disrupt the meeting with his declaration of love, or anything. He would start with a prom invitation, first of all, and even he knew to wait until after the all-important-faceoff-of-a-meeting for something like that.

"Come on, I'll help you," Annabeth told him as she drug him forward. He banged into someone's knee and ended up with a daughter of Apollo's elbow in his ribs. "Malcolm," she called over her shoulder, "you can speak for Cabin Six." Two sons of Mars joined them as an escort as they broke free and left the meeting behind.

They walked to the workshop in the dark, Leo trying to keep up with the pace Annabeth set. After six months of waiting and worrying, he didn't know what he had expected Annabeth to do when reunited with her boyfriend. Run and throw her arms around him, maybe. Cry, perhaps. But turn and walk away? That wouldn't have even made the list. It was exactly what happened, though. They were quickly leaving the meeting behind and suddenly their new workshop was looming up from the shadows.

When they had been left alone inside the shed, Leo had turned to Annabeth for an explanation, but she had made a beeline for where her laptop sat on a desk and retreated with it into the interior of the ship. Resigned, Leo had reached into his tool belt, selected a hammer, and started his repairs. He tried to work loudly, whistling and hitting things all together too hard, because whenever he stopped to catch his breath, or in the pauses between his hammer strikes, or anytime when the shed was too quiet, he could hear a sound echoing up from deep within the ship that may have been Annabeth sobbing.

So she would have cried, then.

* * *

Leo paused in his work with the cannon and looked down at where Annabeth sat. At least she had moved back out of the ship and he didn't have to listen to her eerie sounds echoing through the metal. That first night, she had only reappeared at curfew, her eyes red and puffy. Now they were replaced with eyes with deep shadows from lack of sleep.

Most days, you couldn't even see those, thanks to the work of Piper. It seemed keeping up an appearance of strength was important for everyone until a deal had been reached, and Piper took that very seriously. Secretly though, Leo wondered why she bothered. Piper's hand might have been able to hide the shadows under Annabeth's eyes, but it couldn't do anything for the shadows in them.

* * *

The day after that first meeting, on his way to the ship, Leo had seen Annabeth having an intense conversation with Chiron. Her face had crumpled with emotion, and the centaur had reached out to wrap an arm around her for a moment before she had stepped away and headed to what Leo remembered was the archery arena. Every minute of every day, if she wasn't confined to the girls' cabin, or working on calculations for the _Argo II,_ or in yet another futile meeting, Annabeth was in the arenas, throwing knives, practicing archery, or ferociously slicing up targets. She was making an impression, too. The last time he had talked with Piper, she told him about three different sets of Roman kids who had mentioned the skill of the daughter of Athena when she spoke with them.

He had found out later from Jason that the rest of the first meeting had not gone well, even with the arrivals and their good news. The matter of the Golden Fleece had been set aside for a later date in order to brief and introduce the newcomers, but that agrument was far from over. The boy had, in fact, been Percy Jackson, and the girl Leo had fallen for wasn't a girl at all, but a goddess. Leo quickly put the brakes on his crush: he had been down that path before and didn't feel like walking it again.

The goddess, Calypso, was the daughter of the Titan Atlas, and was newly freed from her punishment by the benevolent gods at the end of the Titan war at the request of Percy Jackson. Once free, she had sought him out to thank him, and had discovered him in the Roman camp with no memory of himself or her. It was she who had informed the Roman camp about Greek half-bloods and Camp Half-Blood, using what Percy had once told her. To prove her loyalty to the gods, she had stayed to help the demigods fight the giants and restore Percy's memory. The gossip around camp was that the two of them were almost always together, but no one could confirm if they were _together _together.

Leo finally got to meet Jackson for himself at the next meeting he attended, and when Percy followed him back to see the ship. Annabeth, Leo had noticed, had taken the opportunity to practice throwing knives somewhere else. Not that Percy Jackson seemed to care, he was more interested in the ship than in the people building it. Leo spent almost the whole day with the guy and at the end he had to admit, he honestly didn't know what to make of him.

He wasn't much older than Leo was, and seemed relatively normal. Roman, yeah, but just as normal as the rest of the Roman campers were. Still, by now he had heard the stories. The entire trip across America was like one constant stream of camp lore, more often than not featuring the chosen Son of Poseidon. Everyone he talked to seemed to have a story: Percy Jackson saving the world. Percy Jackson saving the camp. Percy Jackson saving their life.

The way they told it, this guy was always ready for a fight and never short of a smart-mouthed comeback. He could split his enemies sides equally with a sword or with a joke. Leo had started calling him 'Action Jackson' in his head because _Percy _just didn't jive with the hero the stories had painted. He wondered if other people, years from now, would think _Leo_ worked as the name of one of the seven great heroes, or if they would change it to something more dramatic. That was, if he managed to survive and they pulled off this whole saving the world thing. Something Percy Jackson had already managed to do.

His fellow campers had made it out that there wasn't much the Son of Poseidon _couldn't _do, and from what Leo could see, they were right. Percy could talk with horses, command water with the flick of his wrist, and control Leo's entire ship with just a few words. Weapons bounced off of him even without his battle armor, and his skin was never pierced. Leo was pretty sure that bullets would ricochet off of this guy, and was half expecting him to reveal that he had X-Ray vision to boot. The only thing Percy Jackson couldn't do, he figured, is remember things like his middle name, his friends, and girls he used to date.

Thanks to Calypso, though, he knew plenty of other things about himself. He knew his name was Percy Jackson. He knew he lived in New York City with his mother. He knew that he was sixteen years old, and that his birthday was in August. He knew he fought the Titans. He guessed he had a lot to do with why they lost. He knew that his sword was made of celestial bronze, and that he had once blown up Mt. St. Helen's. He knew that he was the son of Neptune.

"Or Poseidon," he threw out carelessly, inclining his head to the Greek side of the room while monotonely answering questions at a meeting.

He was like that with everything he told them. When he saved the world, when he almost died, there was no pride or fear or relief in his voice. It might as well have been happening to someone named Marty, for all the emotion Percy Jackson put into it. _Marty fought the Minotaur, Marty met his dad for the first time, Marty stopped a war between the gods._ The only person Leo would vote for over him for _The Least Amount of Personality at Camp_ was Annabeth.

* * *

On one of the worktables, a wind up toy suddenly started walking, every footstep punctuated by the sound of a different beep. It clattered over the edge of the table and landed on the floor where flipped itself back onto its feet and started wandering in circles.

Leo pushed his tools away and started down from his perch, giving the deactivated bronze dragon head to his left a good scratch behind the scales first. That was the signal to leave the shop for the night. If they left now, they would just make it to their cabins before the first night patrol swooped over and took them in for questioning. His feet touched the ground, and he scooped up and rewound the toy. Annabeth shut the lid of her laptop and fell into step beside him as they started outside.

They walked quickly. Like all other rules, the Roman camp took curfew very seriously. It was quickly made clear that anyone caught roaming around at night would be punished, and visitors would be no exception. Fortunately for them, the wind that had buffeted the walls of the building earlier had died down, leaving a cool, calm, almost pleasant evening around them.

Their path had originally been deserted, but they soon ran into another group of people. A group of ten or so purple shirts appeared up ahead and, unlike them, were taking their time on the path. Without discussing it, Leo and Annabeth moved together to the side of the torch-lit path to pass them. These were probably the more talented kids of the camp, who were a little more secure in their value and their ability to escape serious punishment, and so willing to bend a few rules, and arrogant Roman demigods was somewhere between fire breathing monster and flesh eating fungus on the list of things Leo wanted to deal with just then.

From far away, there was a flapping of wings and a screeching sound Leo recognized as metal on metal. The night patrol. The Roman kids all glanced behind, then quickened their pace down the path, their conversations still ongoing and not the slightest bit quieter. "What I don't get," a new voice drifted over to them from the huddle, "is all the orange." Beside him, Annabeth stiffened, and Leo didn't have to look over his shoulder to know that he was listening to Percy Jackson speak.

"I mean, it only works as camouflage if you're invading a crayon factory, or maybe Florida." Leo could hear a few snickers as Jackson continued confidingly. "Now, purple I can understand. Of course, everyone knows I would prefer green," there was the shrill laugh from one of the girls at this, "but purple has got a history behind it. I can respect purple. It represents Rome. But _orange_? How is that even Greek?"

He couldn't help it: he glanced over at the throng. Was it his imagination, or did Jackson suddenly look away, like he had been watching them before?

"It's not" one of the others volunteered. "They just hope it will make them stand out."

"Nothing else will," someone else called out, "certainly not their skills." There was a lot of laughter.

Leo and Annabeth kept silent and kept on moving. Soon the others veered off to where their cabins were and they traveled alone again. Leo kept sneaking glances over at Annabeth. "Shows how much he knows," she said after they had walked half of the way in silence. The necklace from the first meeting was wound around her wrist and she kept sliding the beads back and forth on the leather string.

"How much who knows?" Leo asked. Annabeth had a way of confusing him by starting her conversations in the middle.

"He would prefer blue, not _green_." The color was almost a curse when she said it. "His favorite color is _blue_." She scoffed. "The idiot. Half the clothes he wears are blue, the cake I helped make for his birthday was blue, he turns his Coke blue when he thinks no one is watching, and last August he made the freaking Empire State Building-"

"Let me guess," Leo interrupted. "Blue."

Annabeth didn't answer him. They walked on in silence.

When they reached the cabin where the girls were sleeping, Leo tried again. "You know, maybe you should try telling Percy that. The blue thing. I bet knowing his favorite color would be something he would appreciate." Annabeth walked past him and into the building without a word.

"And….good night," Leo told the now shut door. He turned and started walking towards the building where his bed was at. "See you in the morning. Sleep tight." As he started away, a dark figure appeared from behind the girls' cabin and hurried to walk next to him.

"She doesn't think she can get him back."

Leo grimaced. "Let's start at the beginning," he said, because, gods, he didn't think he could take it if Piper started acting like Annabeth, too.

"Annabeth," Piper said slowly, "she won't tell Percy about his favorite color, or anything else, because she doesn't think it will do any good. As far as she's concerned, Hera destroyed her boyfriend when she took his memories. Even if he gets them back, she thinks he's still going to be this Roman guy, who just remembers how he used to be a different person."

"That's not how it worked with Jason," Leo protested.

Piper pursed her lips. "Some of his friends seem to think so."

That was news to Leo. Jason hadn't said anything to him about how he felt about being back at his old camp with his old friends.

"And to top it all off," Piper continued, "I think she's still a little mad at her boyfriend over the whole Calypso incident, but doesn't want to admit it."

"The boyfriend she doesn't think exists anymore," Leo commented. Piper was the emotion expert here, but he thought she was a little off base.

"That doesn't stop him from hurting her," she countered. "They had been dating for only a few months, right? I bet they still had a lot of issues to work out before he went missing."

"Maybe," Leo agreed, "but I just didn't think she'd give up like that." That wasn't like the Annabeth who had subtly threatened him with a riveting gun.

Piper tucked a braid behind her ear. "Well she is," she said, "at least for now. She figures that defeating the giants is the bigger problem-"

"No small task there," Leo commented.

"-and Chiron wants us easing tensions between the camps, not stirring them up." She hunched forward and sighed. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the cabin leaders to talk for five minutes without threatening to kill each other?"

"No," Leo said because he had been skipping out on a lot of those meetings to work on the ship.

"It's practically impossible," she said miserably. "Half the time, they're not even meaning to insult someone, it just happens and then everyone's got a weapon in their hand."

He was almost afraid to ask. "And the other half?"

"Oh, they mean to," Piper said, "The Stoll brothers seem to have their own made up language that they insist is Latin." She sighed, "Obviously that doesn't go over well. I have a new half sister who's vowed to pin their tongues to the table next time it happens. And yesterday, Will Solace was playing his guitar outside your cabin, and I swear the song he was playing was, 'Hungry like the Wolf.' And it's not like the Romans are much better."

She paused and looked over at Leo. Even in the dark, he could see her worried expression. "I honestly think I've stopped World War III from starting twice this past week. We were just one word away."

He had a feeling he was supposed to say something now, something reassuring about how Piper was doing a great job and how it would work out somehow, but he couldn't think of any words. Instead he thought back to the _Argo II_ and wondered if he could skip some of the cabin modifications if the Roman camp wasn't going to be joining them after all.

"It's only been a week," he said as they started walking again.

"And a half," Piper added.

"Well, what does Jason think?" he asked her.

Piper was quiet. "I don't know," she admitted. "Most times we work together, but there are other times when he suddenly jumps to their side." She kicked at a clump of grass as they walked. "There shouldn't even be any sides any more!" she burst out. "You know, if I was the gods, and I had a choice, I wouldn't join with us either!"

"Keep your voice down," Leo warned as he peered into the surrounding shadows. There was no telling who was listening; they could be anywhere. Up that tree, behind that rock, on a throne on Mt. Olympus...

"Sorry," Piper said, a little quieter. She changed the subject. "How's the ship coming?"

Leo scowled. "Slowly," he said darkly. "At this rate, you'll be buying your new sister Christmas gifts before we leave."

"Oh," Piper muttered. "I would have thought with Annabeth and everyone..."

"Annabeth's part of the problem." Leo said resentfully. "It's like she left her brain back in New York. I mean, big deal," he continued, pitching his voice higher, "'My boyfriend doesn't remember me! Oh no!'" He continued in his normal voice, "It's not the end of the world. The end of the world is what's going to happen if she doesn't get her act together!"

"This is hard for her, all right?" Piper interjected. "I'm sure she's doing the best she can. And we are making progress, she's making progress! Do you know that more Roman campers know Annabeth's name than any of the rest of us? It's just...it's difficult. She thought she knew how she felt, and how he felt, but now he doesn't even know how he's feeling, so how can she figure it out? And there's still all this _pressure_ and she's got to deal with it and..." she trailed off, turning a little red.

Leo didn't think they were just talking about Annabeth anymore. "Okay," he said, feeling a little guilty. "Sorry."

She spoke up after a little while, "So – Annabeth," she finished weakly. "She thinks it would be a mistake to try to make Percy Jackson remember now. But a few things she's said make me think she's planning to stick with him during the war. That way if anything important comes up that he needs to remember, she can let him know and keep him safe. But that's why she's been keeping her distance, to not mess with his head. That and it hurts her to be around him, and she needs to put up a strong front for the Romans." She shrugged. "Everyone else has been following her lead, more or less."

They had reached the boys' cabin. Piper turned and looked speculatively back at her own, judging whether Annabeth had had enough time to herself yet. Then she made sure she told him "goodnight" before heading back. Leo walked inside and was greeted by the sounds of snoring from every other boy who had accompanied them from Camp Half-Blood and was now crammed in this one cabin. It was a large cabin, but still overly crowded with the number of people who now occupied it.

Leo sunk onto his own bunk and rubbed his eyes. If Piper was right, then they were still under a deadline they couldn't make, nothing was changing fast, and no one was going to do anything about it. Well maybe Annabeth's plan worked for everyone else, but Leo had a ship to fix and finish. And to do that, he needed a little more information about where they were going. And for that he needed Annabeth, and she apparently needed a boyfriend without amnesia.

He flopped into bed and closed his eyes. And there Leo was stuck, because he hadn't been able to fix the neurocircuits of a mechanical dragon. He was way out of his league trying to repair the goddess-damaged mind of a Son of Poseidon.

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AN: One more chapter left, I think.

Was this chapter too long? Too much information? Let me know what you thought!


	3. Leo's Solution

AN: Okay, so I was mistaken, and this chapter is not the last one. It turned out to be longer than I was comfortable putting in a single chapter and so I cut it into two, slightly shorter chapters, instead. Sorry for the mix-up.

Thanks again to everyone who favorited or signed up for the alert. And thank you to McIrishGirl, percyjacksonharrypotter, Unknow, g, VampireNits, Musafreen and Shorty and KG Inc. for reviewing. Your words mean a lot!

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The next day found Leo turning away from the deserted area of camp where his makeshift workshop sat and heading instead toward its center. He had spent the last night thinking about Jason, and how his memory was practically restored. How, once they had gotten him in his old stomping grounds last winter, the memories had practically jumped to the front of his mind.

He remembered the blinding flash as Jason and an entire mountain were hit by lightning and grinned. Maybe all Percy Jackson's memory needed was a little zap.

As he walked, he passed the stone circle where the summit meetings were held. There was no meeting today, but raised voices could still be heard coming from inside the torch stands.

"Look, I don't _care, _okay? We have the Fleece, and we're going to be keeping it until the war is over. It's our best line of defense, and I don't know about you guys, but _our _camp was attacked in the last war. We're not about to leave it weakened while everyone is gone. We won't have anything to come home to. You guys just have to get over the fact that we got to it first."

Leo craned his head and looked between two stands to see Katie Gardener, Anthony and Amber glaring at each other over the stone table. He guessed someone had thought that a daughter of Demeter was the best choice for dealing with the children of Ceres, who refused to budge on the Golden Fleece issue and wouldn't let it drop. Anthony still held his rolled up paper of demands and was currently twisting it while looking at Katie like he wished it was her neck.

"By months," he hissed at her. "By our calculations, you were there mere _months _before we were. I accompanied Jason myself. It is the only quest in one-hundred and fifty years where the members failed and yet returned alive."

"And you want your perfect score back?" Katie's voice raised up an octave. "I think we have more important things to deal with. We need to work _together _or the gods-"

"The gods were why we sought the Fleece!" Amber spoke up. "Nature is dying, how can _you _not feel it? The wild is being lost, and it is weakening the nature spirits, and with it the gods of nature. We thought that if we could provide them the Fleece, it was such a powerful object, that it would strengthen them and last them until a better solution could be found. We thought they would be useful in fighting the Titans." She crossed her arms. "But we didn't," she accused, "and now the rumors are that the great god, Pan, is truly dead and not merely lost, and the nature gods are even weaker than before."

"All the gods are weak." Anthony added. "They have not recovered from the Titan War. They need to be stronger, or it will not matter if we join them or not. They will still lose."

"The Fleece is powerful," Katie reluctantly admitted, "I've seen it do amazing things, but compared to the _gods_, I really don't know how much stronger it would make them." She placed her hands on the table palms up. "You guys are right, the gods are a little weak still." Leo jumped as he heard thunder rumbling in the distance, but the others ignored it. "That's why they need us." Katie continued. "Our parents need us to join them, to help them. _We _will make them stronger."

"That's what your charmspeaker says," Anthony said, "but we do not agree. We think that our first effort should be to strengthen them, however we can. Who is stronger, or better suited to this fight than the gods?"

"_That _should be our first concern," Amber explained. "And we plan to start by providing them with the Fleece."

"And _I've _told _you_," Katie said, sounding madder than she had been at the Stoll brothers on Easter. "We need the Fleece. The camp-"

Amber's hand smacked into the table. "One god has already died for your selfishness!" she burst out, jumping to her feet. "How many more have to, before you see we are right?"

Katie was on her feet, too. "You can't blame us for that! That's crazy! And if you think your little plan is going to work, well, you're crazy, too! We have to unite, join the gods, and then make them stronger, that's what we've been told to do, that's what the prophecy says."

"It says nothing of the sort!" Anthony yelled back. "We _must _strengthen the gods by any means _before _we join them! _How _can you not see that?"

That was enough. Leo turned away and left them behind. He had heard different versions of this same fight the past few days repeated to him the past few days. Obviously they weren't making any progress. He hoped his conversation would go a little better when he talked to Percy Jackson.

He found him in the sword fighting arena. An individual training session was going on, which was rare, because the Romans liked to train their demigods to work in groups. Each could take on a monster on their own if they had to, of course, but most of their training involved getting a legion to act as one. Those who showed the talent were trained further, but the priority was to create soldiers first, and then heroes.

Jackson was up against three other kids and from the looks of it, he was winning. He spun and cut and dodged and wove through his opponents like they were made of air. His bronze sword stood out among all the gold weapons and he handled it like it was an extension of his arm. The other kids were talented, and it was clear they were trying, but it still wasn't much of a fight.

Leo had no idea how much longer they could last, so he sat down in the surrounding seats to wait. From where he was sitting, he watched Jason walk across an open area with a few Roman kids in purple shirts. Saw him listen as one of the others talked and the rest nodded. Wondered if they realized they were all walking in step with one another. He tried to catch Jason's eye, if anyone could help Leo out it would be him, but his back was already turned. He was on his own.

The practice broke up, and the kids in purple shirts started to drift away. Leo took a gamble and called out "Hey, Jackson!" Percy Jackson looked up and Leo waved for him to come over. He tried to make it look convincing, like he and this guy had known each other for years. As far as Percy was concerned, they might have.

Percy walked over and sat down next to him. "Leo," he said, remembering his name. He motioned to the sword arena. "You any good with a sword?"

"Never really tried," Leo admitted. "The past six months have been nothing but building the _Argo _for me. I prefer a hammer or a screwdriver, though. That way I can brain you one second and fix your motorcycle the next."

Percy snorted, and Leo caught a quick smile before he smothered it. His face regained that serious, neutral expression of all the Roman campers. His gaze got really distant as he set his sword down beside him and said, "You know I rode a motorcycle once, before I came here. A real nice Harley."

So he did have some real memories hidden somewhere inside his head. That gave Leo a little bit of hope that he could succeed. "I never knew you had a Harley," he said. It was true, no one had ever mentioned a motorcycle that in their endless tales of Percy Jackson. A giant dog, check, and a flying horse too, but never a motorcycle.

Percy looked at him. "It wasn't exactly mine."

It was Leo's turn to smile. "Grand theft, huh?" He raised his eyebrows. "You should talk to Piper. I'll tell you, that beauty queen can get her hands on anything-"

"I didn't steal it." Jackson's voice was suddenly harsh, and his head was set at a proud angle. He frowned. "It was an emergency. Something had happened. Something…something bad..." his voice trailed off and he slumped forward again.

Leo had enough experience the past few months with Jason's half memories to know to let it go for now. Sure enough, it wasn't long before Percy pressed his hand to the small of his back, rubbed it, and straightened. "And what is it with you guys and nicknames?" he asked.

Where had that come from? "What?" Leo asked, confused.

Percy kicked a small rock and watched it fall down the rows of seats in the arena. "You just called Piper 'beauty queen.'" he explained. "I've heard that Nico kid called no less than four different names including 'zombie dude,' 'ghost king,' and 'corpse breath.' Your head Daughter of Mars, Clarisse, gets called 'pig snout,' behind her back, and _she_ called the blonde girl-

"Annabeth," Leo supplied, watching Jackson closely for a reaction. There was only one blonde girl who had journeyed with them.

"Right." Percy paused. "Annabeth." He sounded like it cost him something to say her name. "Well, Clarisse called her 'wise girl,'" he finished lamely. "It all sounds pretty stupid to me."

Leo thought it over. "I don't know why we do it," he slowly admitted. "We just do, that's all. I guess it means something, like, you're with us. That you're one of us." Then he thought of Thalia and Jason and how neither really liked to be called by their last name. "And," he continued. "Well, most of us were named by our parents, you know, godly or otherwise. That could have something to do with it. Not everyone's got a great relationship with their parents." He finished pointedly.

"The way I do," Percy answered.

"So I've heard," Leo said, trying to keep his voice light.

He let out a loud breath. "And I can't even remember them."

Leo remembered. He remembered the pretty lady he had caught Annabeth Iris-messaging in the bunker, right before they left. She had seemed so nice, sitting alone and surrounded by papers in what looked like a living room. Even though she was clearly worn out with worry, she had been so sure that her son was all right. She had expressed nothing but confidence in Percy, and in Annabeth. Even in Leo.

He wondered if this was how his own mom would have handled it if _he _had been the one to disappear for half a year. They wouldn't have found her sitting in a nice living room, but in a garage somewhere working on something complicated to keep her mind busy and away from worrying about him. Would she have been so confident that Leo would be okay? Would she have thought that he was a great hero?

He knew that she would have missed him, the same way he kept constantly missing her all these years. And when they met again, she would have laughed and cried and thrown her arms around him, speaking in both Spanish and English, and talking so fast she didn't notice the difference. And he would have hugged her, and breathed in her scent of motor oil and spices, and told her...

Stop. No. Put it from your mind, Leo. Focus a little more of the guy in front of you, who still has a mother he just can't remember, and a little less on yourself, who can only remember a mom you don't have anymore.

"Not your fault, dude." Leo shifted to lean back against the seat behind him. "Blame my psychotic babysitter." Still, he thought, it really sucked that the only demigod he knew to have lucked out in the parent lottery _and _have been able to keep them for sixteen years was also the one chosen to lose all of his memories in a bid to save the world. "Long story," he added quickly when Percy stared at him with confusion.

The sky was completely clear and a perfect shade of blue - one of the rare days here when the weather was clear and you spent the whole time just waiting for it to turn. He raised a hand to shield his eyes. "You know who you should ask," he said after a while. "Annabeth. She was talking to your mom right before we left. I think she spent more time speaking with her then with her own dad. I bet she could raise a whole lot of memories."

"The blonde girl with the princess curls," Percy murmured.

"Right," Leo said hopefully. "She...knew you pretty well at camp. I would start with her."

Percy was silent. Then, he leaned back, mimicking Leo. "I've seen her around," he said finally. "I even tried to talk to her a few times. Calypso had known her name, and told me we were friends." Then he scowled, "But she was anything but friendly. I would say she was barely _civil_. One wrong move, one wrong word and bam!" he clapped his hands together, "she'd be gone."

What could Leo say? That's because she's really your long lost girlfriend who made herself and everyone else crazy looking for you? That, of course everything you say and do is going to be wrong, because as far as she's concerned, nothing about you is right anymore? Something told him that wouldn't help his cause.

"Besides," Percy continued, smoothing out his expression, "there are other things I need to focus on. I can either mope around until I remember every little thing about myself, or I can get us-_all_ of us apparently-to Greece because that's the only way we can join the gods and save Western civilization." He squinted up at the sun. "I'm choosing civilization."

"And it's really going to be that easy," Leo said, because he knew it wasn't. "Save Greece, save the world."

Jackson shrugged. "Apparently I've done it before."

There was a thumping sound coming from where the cabins, only twelve of them, stood. Both Percy and Leo sat up and glanced over. At first, Leo thought that the weather had finally turned and it was a hailstorm, except that the sky was still completely clear. Then something landed a few rows down from them and rolled under the seat. When he retrieved it, it wasn't a lump of ice in his hand, but a clod of dirt with a plant and its roots exposed at either end. The roots immediately started wrapping around his fingers until he set his hand on fire and turned the whole thing to ash.

"Ceres," Percy said. He stood up and rested one foot on his seat while he surveyed the cabins below. "The cabin has lost their last few challenges, and now they want to prove their merit. They've gotten their mother to bring down a curse."

"Doesn't seem too terrible," Leo ventured. They watched an unfortunate son of Mars quick march across the open area. He got hit hard by at least half a dozen falling plants. "Unless you're that guy, of course."

Another clump landed nearby, and Percy retrieved it pulling his fingers away from the twining roots. He held it out for Leo's inspection. It looked to him like a clump of grass with wide leaves, spreading out to form a circle.

"Crabgrass," he explained. "I bet they are trying to introduce enough of it to form a network throughout the courtyard and the cabins. Their plan is to use it to spy on the rest of us, and learn our plans in advance."

Leo had quit listening at 'network.' An organic system capable of transmitting information. What would its capabilities be, how fast would it work? How would that compare to a network wired with celestial bronze, or even imperial gold? . His head spun at the idea. With an effort, he wrenched his mind away from the blueprints already forming in his mind. "That...actually sounds pretty cool."

"It is borderline juvenile," Jackson said severely, his eyes narrowed. "And asking their mother to intervene?" he continued in a haughty tone, "It reeks of desperation."

Again with the tone and the attitude? He wished this guy could just pick a personality and stick with it. "Whatever, I still like the idea. And, it _is _cool that they could pull this off," Leo said, looking back up at the sky. "I mean, I don't exactly see weeds rain down from the sky every day, Action."

Percy froze for a second, then turned on him, "What did you call me?" He looked as if he'd been shot.

"Action?" Leo remembered the conversation they had just had. "Oh man, you don't mind do you? It's just that everyone's been talking this whole time about all these things you've done, and well, Action Jackson? Don't get mad, dude, it fits."

"Not that," Percy said, looking back around the camp. "The other thing."

Leo was confused, again. "What other thing?" But Percy wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He had set off towards a different arena, sword in hand, leaving Leo behind. "Hey if you don't like the Action thing, you should know it was Jason's idea." Leo called, running to catch up.

Apparently Jason had joined up with Piper, and both were in the arena watching as Annabeth used her knife to beat the tar out of a practice dummy. As Percy and Leo approached, descending down the stone steps, she pretended to get under the dummy's guard, circled around and stabbed it in the back. The two necklaces she wore clattered against one another as she gave the knife a hard twist. Leo gulped. He did not want to be the guy on the other end of that knife. Ever.

He and Percy stood watching her for minute as she hacked away. She glanced at them out of the corner of her eye once, then pretended to parry one blow and dodge another before she attacked again. Straw flew as she cut the dummy's upper arm and it hung limply at its side, close to falling off.

"What if I said I was starting to remember?" Percy asked her, finally.

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AN: Did you know that the first two chapters were supposed to be a single one, too? Which is why Chapter 1 ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. That's why this one does too, sorry for that. Anyway, let me know what you thought!


	4. Percy's Found

AN: If you signed up for the alert or favorited the story, thank you. It's always nice to know people are interested in the story. And thank you to g, VampireNits, Musafreen, McIrishGirl, Shorty and KG Inc., and everyone else who reviewed. Your reviews make my day!

And, Musafreen, you bring up a really good question. Hermes is probably the better choice for navigation systems. I think what I was thinking at the time was that Apollo's pinpoint accuracy would be needed so that when you turn the wheel (or joystick, or however Leo decides to control the ship) say, twenty degrees to the left, the ship would move precisely that amount as well. Thinking about it now, that sounds more like propulsion or something like that. Can you tell I've never built a flying ship before? :) Anyway, thanks for the detailed review, it was great!

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Annabeth paused and took a few steps towards them, then she stopped. "Wouldn't be able to tell," she replied shortly, then she turned and flung her knife back at the dummy. The knife circled through the air, then hit it right between the eyes. "It could be your memories, or it could just be what Calypso has been spoon feeding you about your past." She walked back to retrieve her knife.

That seemed to needle Percy. "Calypso only knows about my life up to when I blew up Mt. St. Helen's."

"And a few weeks after," Annabeth said through gritted teeth, as she took a vicious swipe. The head of the dummy fell to the ground. She gave it a hard kick and it sailed for the two of them. Leo had to duck to avoid a trip to the hospital.

He didn't think Percy Jackson could take a hint. Instead of backing down, the guy stepped forward. "I think you won," he said, looking back at the dummy head. Then he walked further into the arena, so that the two of them were facing off. "Want to try a real challenge?"

Annabeth had been standing hunched over, watching him and resting her hands on her knees. Now, she straightened up and brushed her curly hair out of her face. "It's hardly fair anymore," she remarked, "now that you're cursed." She tilted her head. "Do you Romans know what _fair_ means?"

Percy's mouth twitched. If he was trying to smile, he was pretty terrible at it, because it looked to everyone else more like a grimace. He brought up his bronze sword, and spread his arms wide, as if inviting her to hit him. "Land a blow on me," he said cockily, "just one lethal blow, and we'll say you won. I call that fair, or close enough."

For a second, Annabeth just stood there, and Leo almost expected her to walk away. Then she adjusted her grip on her knife and started forward.

For a second, Jackson looked confused. "Don't you want to get a sword?" he asked, waving his at her.

Annabeth kept walking. "I think I'll be all right," she said flatly, not taking her eyes off him.

She circled around to Percy's right. He grinned- a real one this time- and turned with her, not allowing her to get behind him. There was a pause while they watched at each other, then he called out confidently, "Well?"

Quick as a flash, Annabeth moved. Leo almost called out a warning to Percy, then stopped himself. It was just some practice fighting; he wasn't going to kill her and she couldn't kill him. He hoped. But still, he didn't think Jackson had seen the look in Annabeth's eye, or else the guy would be running for the hills right now and he wouldn't stop until his next birthday.

It was like every thing Annabeth had felt since Leo had met her was playing out in her stormy gray eyes. All the worry, anxiety, hurt, betrayal and anger that she felt towards everyone, but probably mostly the boy in front of her, couldn't- or wouldn't- be held back any longer.

She reached behind her and grabbed something from her back pocket. She flicked her wrist and it went flying towards Percy Jackson's face. It was moving faster than Leo could see, but he knew with his other senses that it was just a small knife, not made of Celestial bronze, and not even that sharp. He doubted it could have done much damage to _him_, much less the Super Camp Leader and All Around Awesome Hero, Percy Jackson. Sure enough, Percy casually swatted it away with his sword.

But he hadn't been able to see the knife as quickly as Leo had, and so Leo saw the rest of Annabeth's plan before Percy could realize what was happening. Annabeth hadn't stopped moving when she had thrown the knife, and now while her opponent's attention was still on where it lay on the ground, she had moved towards his raised sword arm to get under his guard. At the very last instant, Percy wised up to where she was and a clanging rippled through the air as their blades met.

They quickly moved away. Neither took their eyes off the other as they circled around each other. Then Annabeth asked, "So, what do you think you remember?"

Something quickly flickered across Percy Jackson's face that looked to Leo like hope. After all that talk he had given about about priorities and civilization, did he really want to be the Greek hero he had been again? Leo wondered, _could _he be that guy again? As soon has he had thought it, though, the expression was gone, and Jackson's face was smooth once again.

"My birthday is in August," he started as he feinted to one side and attacked from the other. Annabeth pulled out of his reach and shook her head. "It is too!" he insisted.

"No," Annabeth explained. "I mean that won't work. That's something you could've been told, or a memory Hera could have left for you. The last Great Prophecy revolved around your birthday, you could have even figured it out for yourself. If you want to convince me," she said, shifting her feet, "it's going to take something else." She landed a kick on his side and raised her eyebrows in surprise when he didn't budge. Leo guessed all that obsessive legionnaire training had an effect, after all.

Percy didn't seem to notice. "Fine,' he huffed and thought again. He performed a tricky maneuver that was so quick, Leo didn't quite catch it, but it almost knocked Annabeth's knife out of her hand. At the last second, she grabbed on with her other hand and managed to keep it. "Bacchus likes for you to call him Mr. D."

Annabeth switched her weapon to her left hand and stood for a second while she shook out her right at her side, like it stung from whatever he had done. "That's because he's Dionysus," she corrected, moving back into a ready stance. "And he doesn't really _like _for us to do much of anything."

Percy blocked her blow and countered with one of his own. "And the Merc- _Hermes _– cabin has an uneven floor."

_This is what he remembers? _Leo thought. The guy can't remember his own girlfriend's name, but he remembers random architecture glitches from around camp? What the heck?

Annabeth was apparently thinking the same thing, because she rolled her eyes. "I'll take your word for it," she said. "I've never slept on it." Then she pounced and brought the end of her hilt down on Jackson's head before he pushed her away.

Her comment appeared to trouble Percy. "I have?" He frowned and brought his free hand up to rub where his head had been hit, although Leo couldn't imagine how it had hurt him. "Do your satyrs like enchiladas?"

"Not exactly." His next attack made Annabeth somersault out of the way, then come up in a defensive crouch, ready. "That's mainly just Grover."

"Oh, of course," Percy said nonchalantly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He tried the same move again, and this time Annabeth almost took his sword. The sharp edge of her knife dragged along the inside of his arm, but it didn't even leave a mark. Leo made a note to self: if he ever lost his fire powers, he was definitely going to take a swan dive into the Styx first chance he got, because it looked like it could have some serious advantages. "And he would be…?"

Annabeth stopped and shot Jackson a look. For the first time, she looked sorry for the boy in front of her, who could hardly remember his own name, and apparently had his favorite color all wrong. "Your best friend," she said finally.

Percy Jackson's face fell. Leo couldn't imagine what it was like for him, and Jason, to have forgotten people- important people - who now demanded that they be remembered. He couldn't imagine that it was fun. Percy changed the topic to flying horses as they continued to spar, but he seemed a bit distracted, now. Every once in a while, as he blocked Annabeth's blows and counted with his own, he would mouth "Grover," like he was still trying to fit the word into one of the gaps in his memories, to find a face he could label 'best friend.'

They went on like that for quite a while, sometimes discussing trivial facts, like the roof of the Demeter cabin, and sometimes Leo learned something new. He had never known that the attic of the Big House was full of battle artifacts, or that a mummy had previously held Rachel's job as the Oracle.

And hey, would it have been too much for Will Solace to mention the nest of _giant freaking ants_ which no one had ever managed to kill when he gave Leo his 'welcome to camp' tour? That was the kind of thing he wished he had known before he had wandered in the forest all alone and defenseless.

None of it was what Annabeth was looking for, though. Each fact Percy provided was either too obvious or something he could have been told. They watched as Percy grew more and more aggravated as he tried again and again and again and again. Leo was starting to wonder if maybe Annabeth was just holding out on purpose, making this more difficult for Percy so that she could keep him talking. He was also getting new respect for the shape Annabeth was in. After a week of almost no sleep and then tearing apart that practice dummy, she was now holding her own in a sword fight that didn't show signs of ending. He couldn't have done it, that was for sure.

It was taking its toll though; she was breathing hard now and even Jackson looked like he might be starting to break a sweat. It's not like their hearts were really in the fight anymore, anyway. They still moved to attack each other, their weapons still clashed as they blocked the other's blows, but it was clear that their focus was shifting more to the conversation they were having than anything else.

It was after about thirtieth time that Percy muttered 'Grover' that Annabeth commented on it. "You don't remember him," she said as she ducked a high strike.

"I didn't before," Percy admitted. He brought his sword back close to his body. "Does he like peanut butter? Like really, _really _like peanut butter?"

Annabeth sighed. "No," she said. Percy muttered something about _someone _liking peanut butter before. Frustrated, she stabbed at his shoulder. He turned so that she sliced through air, and she pulled back. Then, in a thin voice, the words sounding like they had been pulled out of her, she asked, "What do you remember about me?"

His answer was immediate. "You pulled me out of a lake when I fell in."

Annabeth's brow furrowed. She jumped back to avoid his next attack and shook her head. "I don't remember that. Never happened."

But Percy was persistent. "Yes, it did." he said, sword held high in anticipation of her next move. She cut forward to land a hit under his arm, and he brought his sword down on her knife, hard. While she recovered, he continued, "I fell in, my clothes were soaked, and I wanted out. You were there and still in the canoe and you gave me your hand. You laughed at me," he finished accusingly. He seemed a little anxious; like this was one memory he had hung on to all these months and he couldn't stand for it to be false.

Annabeth looked like she was working it over in her head, then looked at him with regret. "But it just doesn't make sense," she said. "You couldn't get out of water on your own? _I've _never seen you like that. And think, why were your clothes wet, unless you wanted them to be?"

"I-don't-know." Each word was accompanied by a swipe of Percy's blade as he renewed his attack with greater vigor. Annabeth moved quickly, but barely stopped each blow. The lost and confused look on his face was one Leo was glad he didn't see on Jason's so much anymore. He really felt for the guy. A thought seemed to cross Jackson's mind and he stopped moving. "If it's not real, then why do I remember it?" he asked her.

"I don't know," Annabeth moved her knife in a circle at her side. She started around to his left. "Maybe Hera did it to confuse you? She's not as fond of you as she is of Jason."

"Yeah, I figured something like that when I woke up in the middle of nowhere in my pajamas," Percy said dryly, matching her move. "Why does she hate me, again?"

Annabeth feinted a blow then tried again to move behind Percy, and succeeded. "She hates me, not you," she said, her knife at his throat. "She dislikes you by association."

He grabbed her arm, doubled over and heaved her over his shoulder. She somersaulted back in front of him and quickly moved out of reach of his sword. "What did you do?" Percy asked, his tone almost teasing.

Annabeth scowled at him. "I agreed with you." Her curls had flown everywhere and she pulled them behind her neck and tied them into a ponytail before looking at him again. "That's always a risky move." Percy seemed taken aback, and she regarded him for a moment, just staring at him. Leo wondered what she was thinking. "Look, try again," she said. Part of her voice was demanding, and part sounded like it was pleading-with him or with whatever mysterious container still kept his memories from him. "Try harder." Then she struck at his neck again.

It was a long moment, where the only sounds in the arena were the sounds of their blades hitting off of one another. Then Percy offered, "You have a brother named Malcolm."

"Everyone knows that, he came here with us."

"And one named Matthew."

Annabeth eyes went wide, and she stepped away in surprise. Leo was confused. He thought he knew everyone in Cabin Six by now, and he didn't know any Matthew. He waited for Percy Jackson to take the opportunity to attack, but instead the boy just stood there, watching Annabeth, waiting for her verdict.

She nodded. "Okay, that's something," she admitted, as she swiped her knife low, trying to cut Jackson's ankles out from under him and trip him up. "What else?"

He jumped over her arm and brought down his sword, but she was already gone. "You're afraid of spiders," he said, his voice loaded with confidence now. The frustration was gone from his face , and he had on a broad grin, clearly happy to have gotten one right.

Annabeth scowled and rotated out of the hold he had been trying to get her in. "Not a secret. All children of Athena are."

"Yeah, but here the Minerva kids are trained to get over it," Percy countered as he jabbed at her with his sword. Leo shuddered, how exactly did the Romans "train" someone to get over a fear of spiders? Did that go for every inherent fear the demigods had?

Annabeth tried to attack from another angle, but Percy sidestepped her. "You never have, though," he continued smoothly. "Even when we were at Mt. St. Helen's you were-" he stopped short as Annabeth moved under his guard and went toe to toe with him. Her long knife caught the swing of his sword at the hilt, and they stood there, facing off with their weapons locked in between them.

"So," she challenged, grabbing onto the front of his purple shirt with her free hand and pulling him closer. "Do you remember everything that happened in Mt. St. Helen's, then?" She narrowed her eyes. "Everything?"

Percy's response was to lean through the gap in their blades and kiss her.

Well, that was it, Leo thought, game over. He had had exactly zero luck with girls, and even he knew that Jackson's move had been a dumb one. He waited for Annabeth to pull away and smack Percy into next year. Then he would get mad, and the Romans would be riled up, and the fragile truce they had built over the past week and a half would be up in smoke. This was how the war would begin, he could see it now. Demigods would attack demigods, and the gods would fall and the world would end, and it was all because one arrogant idiot kissed one angry girl.

Annabeth broke the kiss and moved away, but, surprisingly enough, the end of the world didn't follow. Instead she lowered their weapons to their sides and let go of Percy's t-shirt. In all the months that he had known her, Leo had never seen Annabeth with an expression lquite like the one she had on now. It might have been happy. She looked at the boy in front of her intently, searching his face. She must have found what she had been looking for, because she then said, "That had better be a yes," before wrapping her free hand around the back of his neck and kissing him again.

That settled it. Alone, Percy Jackson and Annabeth were all right, but together they were just plain _weird_. Leo looked away and found Jason and Piper. They also looked like they were wishing to be anywhere else at that moment. He raised his eyebrows and they shrugged. At least they didn't get the sudden mood swing either. He was about to signal to them that maybe they should go to lunch early, and leave the lovebirds alone, when they heard someone squawk, "Hey!"

Looking back over to the center of the training arena, Leo saw that Percy and Annabeth were definitely not kissing anymore. Percy had both his hands slightly raised and an indignant look on his face. It was pretty obvious why. The point of Annabeth's knife was pressed up against his side in a clearly deadly manner. Somehow she had also gotten a hold of his bronze sword and was holding it defensively in front of her with the other hand.

"One lethal blow," she said, "I win." She lowered the weapons, took a step back, and then offered the sword to Percy.

He took it, and dug around in his pockets before he pulled out a pen cap. Leo watched as he compressed the deadly sword into a ball point pen. Nice. He would have to see if he could take a closer look at that later. The dark expressions flitting on Percy's face as he stuffed the pen in his jeans made it clear that he hadn't decided whether to get mad over this or not. "Only because you cheated."

"You let your guard down," Annabeth said sternly, but then a smile broke out over her face. "I call that fair, or close enough." She was watching Jackson closely, hopefully, and shifting her knife from hand to hand. It didn't look like either knew what else to say.

At that time, a sound echoed across the camp, calling them all to lunch. Jason jumped up. "Guys, we had better go." Already, there was a stream of kids headed past them towards the other end of the camp. The Romans didn't exactly _do _late, and meals here were pretty much first come, first serve. _Survival of the fittest and all that, _Leo thought. _Yay._

Annabeth turned and joined them. As they started to climb the steps out of the training arena, she paused and looked over her shoulder. "Are you coming, Seaweed Brain?" she asked. Percy had been staring after her, but now he snapped back to attention. They waited for him to join them before continuing on up.

When they had reached the top, Leo, Piper, and Jason fell back let the other two walk on ahead. Percy and Annabeth were walking close together, but not too close, their swinging hands just almost brushing. After the morning he had just had, Leo was riding high. The day was only half done and he had already solved his biggest problem. He rocked at this mediating stuff; he didn't see what Jason and Piper were having such a hard time with. Maybe after lunch he would tackle that Golden Fleece issue that everyone was all hot about, and see if he could have that wrapped up by dinner.

They passed the Coliseum on their way to the dining pavilion just in time to see Katie Gardener storm out between the torches and walk away, tossing in the air little pieces of -oh gods, he hoped that wasn't but, yeah, judging from how Anthony was following her with a short sword drawn and murder on his face while Amber pulled on his arm with a worried look on hers, he guessed it probably was-the Romans' original list of demands. Leo nudged Jason and pointed over in their direction. "I think you're on, dude," he said.

Jason sighed and shared a look with Piper. Together they raced across the area, weaving in between the groups of campers heading to lunch as they tried to reach Katie before Camp Half-Blood needed a new counselor for Cabin Four. Leo watched them go, and then headed on to lunch, still trailing Percy and Annabeth. He had changed his mind, maybe he would go ahead and leave the camps' relations to Jason and Piper. After all, he wasn't that good with organic lifeforms. He would focus on getting the ship ready, and let them worry about how to get everyone on board.

Up ahead, he watched as Percy gave a long sideways glance at Annabeth, plucked up his courage, and then slowly, hesitantly, reached out to take her hand. He held it gingerly, like he half expected it to either blow up or fall apart in his grasp. She kept her gaze on the forest on her left, but Leo caught her smile as she laced her fingers more tightly through his.

Maybe this is how it begins, Leo thought, by learning to hang onto what's still the same, instead of focusing on everything that's now different. Maybe demigods could learn to compromise, and start to work with demigods, and then they could all reach Greece, and convince the gods to work with them as well, and together, they would save the world. Maybe this is what they had all been waiting for. For one impulsive idiot to kiss one defensive girl.

"By the way," Annabeth's voice drifted back to Leo as she turned to face Percy, "your favorite color is blue."

* * *

AN: So, that was it. Hope it didn't disappoint. Thank you for sticking with this story and following it all the way to the end.


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